The Proliferation of Monism to the East and the Making of the Religion of the Future in Early Twentieth‐Century Korea

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This study illuminates the transnational proliferation of monism, a worldview that drew on evolutionary theory to unify both science and religion and ultimately replace traditional religions. Particular attention is paid to how monism was transmitted from Germany via Japan to Korea in the early twentieth century, and how this impacted local endeavours to imagine a religion of the future. A prominent figure in this trajectory was the religious thinker Yi Tonhwa (1884–1950) who endeavoured to use the tenets of monism to transform the Ch’ŏndogyo, “Religion of the Heavenly Way,” one of the most prominent religions in Korea at the time, into a universal religion of the future. The result was among the closest to a monist religion the world had seen, although the efforts to align the Ch’ŏndogyo with modern scientific thought also deprived the religion of native elements. This would have significant repercussions for the religion as the scientific optimism that had sustained the global monist movement faded away after 1945.